Thursday, January 24, 2008

Introduction

DIONYSOS

I, Zeus' son, have come to the Thebans' land,Dionysus, who Cadmus' daughter Semele once bore,attended by lightning and fire. And afterchanging from god's to mortal form, I amhere at Dirce's streams, Ismenos' water, tosee the tomb of my thunder-stricken mother;here, near the homes and abodes, the smolderingremains of holy fire, the still-living flame: Hera's un-dying insult to my mother's memory. But I honorCadmus, who consecrated this ground, a sacredmonument to his daughter; which now I cover 'round with a grapevine's leafy foliage.And starting from the gold-studded fields of the Lydiansand Phrygians, the Persians' sun-burnt plains,Baktrian walls and Medes' wintry land,and crossing over opulent Arabia and all Asia, whose toweringcities and gorgeous towers lie upon brine haze,teeming with Greeks and foreigners alike,I came to this city first in Greece, onlyafter I had set all of Asia to dancing andestablished there my mysteries, so Icould appear openly, a god to mortals.

And Thebes is the first city I make cry out inGreece, after covering my own skin with a fawn's andtaking in hand the thyrsus, my ivied javelin;for my mother's sisters, who ought've known better,claimed that Dionysus was never born from Zeus,and that Semele, knocked up by some mortalman, blamed her bed's violation on the god himself (one of Kadmos'tricks!); and they happily let everyone know thatthat's why Zeus had killed her: she made the whole thing up.So I drove them from their homes by stinging them in-sane: they rage out of their minds on the mountain;I even had them wear the livery of my rituals.And Kadmos' female seed, every woman of Thebes, is drivenwild with them;they've met up with Cadmus' daughters to sitbeneath the evergreens, up on the open rocks;for Thebes must be taught its lesson, even if it'sunwilling, they have yet to be taught my Bacchic service;and my mother's name, Semele, must be defended by meappearing to mortals, the Divinity shebore to God. So Cadmus has given the royal gift ofpower to his grandson Pentheus; one who fights againstall that involves me, neglects me entirely from hisofferings and n prayer offers no remembrance;That is why I will show myself, god that I am, to this manand to the Thebans all. And, when everything here's been takencare of, & myself revealed, I'll be off to the next land;and if the city of the Thebans, roused to arms, seeks to drive myBacchae from the mountains, I'll lead the Maenads into battle my-self;and that is why I have assumed a mortal guiseand altered to human shape my form.

But you who've left Mt. Tmolus, the Lydian gate, myBacchic chorus, women of barbarian lands--whom Iaccepted kindly as my fellow travellers: take up thedrums from the Phrygians' land, my foundlings of motherRhea, gather 'round Pentheus' royal palace, make it resoundwith acrashing thunder, so that all of Kadmos' city may see.

And I will go to my Maenads in Kithairon's glensto take part with them in my sacred dances.